Harris Center Benny Goodman Tribute Sold Out; School Matinee Available

The date was January 16, 1938 at Carnegie Hall - the hallowed venue for "respectable" classical music. There, Benny Goodman's band played swing music for the first time, with one of the earliest racially-integrated jazz groups. It was an important day in the history of American music, one worthy of celebration.

Celebrate we will. The Harris Center joins Capital Public Radio in a special partnership, presenting Benny Goodman, Carnegie Hall and the Concert That Changed The World on January 19 at 7:30 pm. That concert is sold out, but local schools have an opportunity to attend a matinee at 10 am on Friday January 19 at the Harris Center. The concert is entitled The King of Swing: Benny Goodman, featuring clarinetist Ken Peplowski and his jazz quintet. Mr. Peplowski ("arguably the greatest living jazz clarinetist," BBC2) will present a one-hour program on the music of Benny Goodman, in an educational program suitable for students Grades 4-12. The cost per student is $5 and tickets are available at www.HarrisCenter.net.

Mr. Peplowski will share insights about Benny Goodman's impact on music and society, while performing selections from the Goodman repertoire with a top- notch small group. Ken and company will demonstrate elements of swing and improvisation and explain how Goodman's small groups helped build a bridge from big band swing to modern jazz.

The matinee is part of the Harris Center ClassActs! School Matinee program. A school-time matinee program that features a wide variety of performances, each ClassACTS! show is selected with a focus on curriculum areas such as world languages, social studies, and language arts. Perfect for public, private and home-schooled students, each performance includes a study guide for teachers based on CaliforniaContent Standards. A guide to theatre-going etiquette is available online to orient first-time attendees. The program is made possible thanks to support from the County of Sacramento.

Capital Public Radio's weeklong celebration will include an appearance by Benny Goodman's daughter and Sacramento resident Rachel Edelson on Insight with Beth Ruyak, Tuesday, January 16 at 9 am (90.9 FM / www.capradio.org) Goodman recordings - both jazz and classical -- will be showcased on CapRadio Music (88.9 FM).

Harris Center/Capital Public Radio are not alone in celebrating this important day in jazz. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis will present three concerts from January 11-13 acknowledging the importance of January 16, 1938. The three concerts at Lincoln Center are similar in design to the Harris Center's evening performance; taking on duties on the clarinet for both the Harris Center and JLCO shows is none other than Ken Peplowski. As such, there is something of a bi-coastal synchronicity to the two events. "These concerts pay tribute to one of the first major public performances of a racially-integrated group, considered a milestone in the acceptance of jazz as America's classical music" (Jazz at Lincoln Center website).

The King of swing: Benny Goodman matinee comes to the Harris Center Friday, January 19, 2018 at 10 am. Tickets for students are $5. They are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from the Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from noon to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. The Harris Center is located on the west side of the Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

Ken Peplowski "sounds the way (Benny) Goodman might if he had kept evolving, kept on listening to new music, kept refining his sound...into the 21st century," wrote music journalist Will Friedwald in 2012 for the Wall Street Journal. Peplowski has recorded approximately 50 CDs as a soloist, and close to 400 as a sideman - some of the artists he's performed/recorded with include Charlie Byrd, Mel Torme, Rosemary Clooney, Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops, Hank Jones, Peggy Lee, Bill Charlap, Woody Allen, and Madonna. Not only has Peplowski performed a number of tribute concerts to Benny Goodman, he was hired to play saxophone by Goodman himself in one of the clarinet legend's last bands.

The Harris Center for the Arts at Folsom Lake College brings the community together to share in cultural experiences featuring the work of artists from throughout the region and around the world. Built and operated by the Los Rios Community College District, the $50 million, state-of-the-art regional performing arts center boasts three intimate venues with outstanding acoustics, an art gallery, a recording studio, elegant teaching spaces, plenty of safe parking and all the other amenities of a world-class performing arts venue. Each year the Center hosts approximately 400 events attracting upwards of 150,000 annually.